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Spotty subwoofer and other Q's (1 Viewer)

Rbuck89

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Ryan Buck
Hello,

I'm not a home theater expert, but I saw that you all have solved some fairly intricate problems, so I figured I'd ask as well.

I have three questions:
1. My subwoofer is spotty. It plays certain notes and when it does play, it doesn't sound right (almost too loud). It is a klipsch 6.1 system w Denon receiver. I've had the same results with another receiver and I've also tried another speaker cable. I plugged the sub into my friends system and it played flawlessly, so I don't think it is blown. Any thoughts?

2. I have my cable box in the coat closet and the TV/sound bar above the fireplace. A universal remote hub (logitech harmony home control) cannot send IR signal through walls. Why can't the harmony remote send IR signals? Can I get a second hub to set up in the room, and have both communicate with the remote? How do I get everything to communicate?

3. I bought a 100' HDMI cable with a built in signal amplifier from Frys and fished it through the wall. The TV now has flashes of static. It has a dial on the amplifier to tweak the signal but I can't seem to tweak the dial just right to remove all static flashes. Before I fished it, I tested it out on a different box and it worked flawlessly. Why did it change after being fished? Could it be the different box?

Thanks,
Ryan
 

Jason Charlton

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Welcome to the forum, Ryan. There's lot of information in your post - I'll try to tackle some of them...


Rbuck89 said:
1. My subwoofer is spotty. It plays certain notes and when it does play, it doesn't sound right (almost too loud). It is a klipsch 6.1 system w Denon receiver. I've had the same results with another receiver and I've also tried another speaker cable. I plugged the sub into my friends system and it played flawlessly, so I don't think it is blown. Any thoughts?

Can you provide a model number for the speaker system, subwoofer and Denon receiver?


If your Denon has a setup/calibration utility (Audyssey or something similar) have you used it?


When you say "speaker cable" do you mean standard speaker wire (two leads) or do you mean a single RCA-terminated coaxial cable?


Rbuck89 said:
2. I have my cable box in the coat closet and the TV/sound bar above the fireplace. A universal remote hub (logitech harmony home control) cannot send IR signal through walls. Why can't the harmony remote send IR signals? Can I get a second hub to set up in the room, and have both communicate with the remote? How do I get everything to communicate?

Is this the same system that has the Denon receiver/subwoofer? If so, why is there a soundbar being used? If the soundbar is somehow connected to the Denon, can you explain how?


No remote control can send IR signals through walls. IR = Infrared and is line-of-sight only. Do you own the Harmony Home Control? Have you read the manual for it? The hub for this system should reside outside the coat closet and is intended to receive the IR signal from the remote, then relay the signal via WiFi or Bluetooth to your devices through the wall. Without reading the manual for the Harmony system, are you certain your devices are/can be configured to recieve remote signals via WiFi or Bluetooth? What does the Harmony manual say about setting up the equipment in the closet?

Rbuck89 said:
3. I bought a 100' HDMI cable with a built in signal amplifier from Frys and fished it through the wall. The TV now has flashes of static. It has a dial on the amplifier to tweak the signal but I can't seem to tweak the dial just right to remove all static flashes. Before I fished it, I tested it out on a different box and it worked flawlessly. Why did it change after being fished? Could it be the different box?

100' is way too long of a run for HDMI (even with an "extender" or amplifier). Did you really need 100 feet, or is much of it just extra slack that's coiled up? If you really need a 100' run, and there's no possible alternative, you need to consider running HDMI over Cat 5 or Cat 6. You can use an extender system like this one, combined with a spool of ethernet cable and a couple of short HDMI "patch" cables to get a much more reliable connection.


Honestly, though, 100 feet seems excessive - is that really where the cable box has to go?


There will be extra questions for you, but this should help get the ball rolling.


Edited because I forgot to include the link...
 

Rbuck89

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Thanks for the response! Here are my answers to your questions:
1. They are Klipsch reference speakers. I have two towers, two sides, a center, a back, and a sub. The Denon is a S700W. I tried the Audyssey, but with my sub acting weird, I don't think it calibrated right. Frankly, yes it's a single coaxial cable.
2. It's a separate system so the sound bar is the only sound equipment for this room. I don't think my cable box or TV have wifi or Bluetooth capability, so they can only communicate with the hub via IR, which means they'll have to be within line of sight. I've seen family friends with similar setup and they're able to get all the equipment working with one remote, so what am I missing?
3. The guy at frys said the hdmi cable would be best. Yes, there is some flexibly in the length, but I double checked it prior to fishing it just to make sure the cable wouldn't mess up (or do exactly what it's doing now). I bought the hdmi over cat6 setup so maybe I can have them fish that through. Any other recommendations to make the hdmi cable work? Could it be the cable box?
 

Jason Charlton

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For the subwoofer:


If the sub worked fine with another receiver, then maybe there's a setting in your receiver that's wonky. Did it ever work properly? Is this problem something new?


- Make sure the crossover dial on the back of the subwoofer is set to maximum and the volume/gain is about halfway.

- Disconnect and reconnect the subwoofer cable at both ends (I'm sure you've already done this, but best to be absolutely safe).

- In the receiver's audio setup menu, make sure the main speakers are set to "small", the subwoofer is "on" and the crossover is set to something reasonable - say 100Hz as a starting point.


Test the sound using a Blu-ray or DVD that you know has some killer bass.


If it's still acting weird, does wiggling either connector of the sub cable have any effect?


For the remote:

- What remote control system are your friends/family using? Sounds like the Harmony Home Control is not suited for your needs. Have you asked them what they used and seen how it's set up?

- If your sources can only recieve IR signals, and they are behind a wall or in another room, then you need to use some sort of IR repeater system. There are tons of them (I use one from Buffalo Electronics in my basement system) including several at Amazon. Basically, these systems place an IR receiver (eye) in the main room which is where you "aim" the remote control. The eye picks up the IR signals and transmits them over Cat 5 wire to a repeater block that is mounted alongside your gear in the closet. Then, the IR signal is carried out through "IR Blasters" which are small, wired IR flashers that you stick to the front of your gear over the IR receiver. This sort of system works with any IR remote control.


On the HDMI cable:

- Yes, I suppose it's possible that the output voltage from the other box was slightly higher than the current box and that may be part of the difference, but I wouldn't have high confidence that another box will solve the problem. Regardless, 100 feet really is just too damn far. I'm really surprised (or maybe not - considering sales margins on cables) that the guy at Fry's actually thought it wise to talk you into a 100 foot HDMI run.
 

Rbuck89

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First, thank you for helping out so much. You are awesome and I really appreciate it!


1. I inhereted the system, so I cannot say whether it has ever worked properly, but I just bought a new receiver and cable, so if it was a wonky setting, I feel like the problem wouldnt have repeated itself on both receivers. If it is a setting, are there common mistakes made by newbies that I should look for? I set the crossovers to 100 Hz, unplugged the cable at both ends, turned the volume to half way, and turned the crossover knob on the sub all the way up. Still not getting any sub... Should the phase be set to 0 or 180? What does this mean? Sometimes I get a bit of static electricity. Does this indicate anything? The sub is also being plugged into the wall with a mini surge protector. I've tried it with or without the surge protector, but to no avail. Are these common and recommended? Could it have messed up the sub? Finally, wiggling the cable doesn't fix it.


2. Thanks for the idea. I think I'm going to trade in my Harmony Home Control remote for a Harmony Ultimate Remote, which emits IR signal from the remote and the hub. Therefore, the remote will send the signal to control the TV and soundbar, and the hub will control the cable box. If this doesn't work, I'll give the IR repeater a shot.


3. Yeah, he probably was trying to get his commision.. I actually also bought all equipment required for HDMI over Cat6, so I'll swap out the wires and see if it works any better. I just tested out the equipment, but it looks like the receiver balun is malfunctioning, so I've got to switch it out at Fry's.


It's crazy (and a little frustrating) how complicated all of this is!!
 

Jason Charlton

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Rbuck89 said:
Should the phase be set to 0 or 180? What does this mean? Sometimes I get a bit of static electricity. Does this indicate anything?

I'll defer to other members to actually explain how to actually determine what phase setting one should use, but suffice it to say that you won't notice any impactful difference either way. Certainly not a "working vs. not working" sort of difference. I don't believe I've ever set the phase on my subwoofer - it's wherever it was set out of the box, probably 0.


The only other thing I would suggest is connecting a different subwoofer to the receiver to see if there's a problem with the receiver's subwoofer preout. That's about the only option remaining at this point. If that's the problem, and the AVR is new and still under warranty, you should be able to exchange it with minimal hassle.


As for the other issues, it sounds like you've got a plan for next steps.


Please keep us up to date on your progress - we always like to hear about what the ultimate resolution(s) are to problems.


Yes, it IS a little crazy how complicated things can be - with technology always changing, it's hard for us to keep up, too. Should you find yourself in the market for any new gear, be sure to come back here and start threads in the various forums. There are longtime members who really know their stuff that usually chime in with really solid advice on just about everything.


Good luck ironing out the subwoofer problem - hope it turns out to be something simple!
 

Robert_J

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1. My subwoofer is spotty. It plays certain notes and when it does play, it doesn't sound right (almost too loud). It is a klipsch 6.1 system w Denon receiver. I've had the same results with another receiver and I've also tried another speaker cable. I plugged the sub into my friends system and it played flawlessly, so I don't think it is blown. Any thoughts?
When you plugged it into your friend's system, I will assume you took it to his house. Did you bring his sub to yours and try it? If you do, put it in EXACTLY the same place you put your sub. Why? Room interaction. A subwoofer and a room work together to create bass. If you play a 50hz tone, you can walk around your room with an SPL meter and it will jump up and down depending on where you are standing. The same is true if you are playing music or a movie and sitting in one location. Each frequency will sound louder or softer depending on where you sit.


The cheapest and fastest way to get better bass is to do the "sub crawl". You put your sub in your favorite seat (preferably at ear level) and then you crawl around on the floor with an SPL meter until you find the loudest spot. That is where you put your sub. Will that give you perfect bass? No. But it will eliminate most room modes. Those are valleys in the frequency response caused by sound waves reflecting around the room and causing basically dead spots.


I took it a step further and measured the frequency response of my room and added a dedicated equalizer on the sub channel to flatten the response.
 

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